ABSTRACT
Spatial systems are manmade multi-component systems with a high degree of variability and unpredictability. Seemingly simple issues like the assessment of infrastructure impacts on regional development or the estimation of information provision on the behaviour of road users are already difficult to handle. The main feature is that the complex nature of a macro system can be characterized by only a few parameters that govern the movement or behaviour of the micro-components that make up particular subsystems. Networks are not only specific, organized spatial structures but offer user functions which aim at improving the efficiency of spatial interactions. The issue of complex multidimensional networks with dynamic, uncertain and complicated relationships between variables requires new methodologies that are able to overcome the restricted models usually adopted in spatial economics. Network planning is a policy activity governed by much uncertainty. There is a need for flexible and dynamic models that can map out unexpected behaviour or uncertainties.
